1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunications, and more particularly, to systems and methods to support a mobile communications device capable of communicating via a wireless broadcast network.
2. Background
Wireless and wireline broadcast networks are widely deployed to provide various data content to a large group of users. A common wireline broadcast network is a cable network that delivers multimedia content to a large number of households. A cable network typically includes headends and distribution nodes. Each headend receives programs from various sources, generates a separate modulated signal for each program, multiplexes the modulated signals for all of the programs onto an output signal, and sends its output signal to the distribution nodes. Each program may be distributed over a wide geographic area (e.g., an entire state) or a smaller geographic area (e.g., a city). Each distribution node covers a specific area within the wide geographic area (e.g., a community). Each distribution node receives the output signals from the headends, multiplexes the modulated signals for the programs to be distributed in its coverage area onto different frequency channels, and sends its output signal to households within its coverage area. The output signal for each distribution node typically carries both national and local programs, which are often sent on separate modulated signals that are multiplexed onto the output signal.
A wireless broadcast network transmits data over the air to wireless devices within the coverage area of the network. However, a wireless broadcast network can differ from a wireline broadcast network in several key regards. One way in which the two types of networks differ is that mobile handsets may encounter service disruptions, or other activity, that requires them to reacquire or resynchronize with the broadcast signal being transmitted within the wireless broadcast network. While this concern has been previously addressed in various wireless networks in different ways, there remains the need for methods and techniques to control reacquiring wireless broadcast network signals in a way which improves power efficiency of the handset, which utilizes overhead, or control, information instead of the data symbols to resynchronize with a signal, and which advantageously utilizes multiple data channels within both wide-area specific signals and local-area specific signals.